CSA 2018 – Week 14: Dropping Knowledge Word by Word

CSA Newsletter – Week 14

Dropping Knowledge Word by Word Dropping Knowledge Word by Word

Whenever I sit down to write this newsletter, the conversations that took place while we harvested your produce starts flittering through my mind. More than any one particular conversation, I wanted to draw attention to the amazing language immersion experience that one has on our harvest crew. While we’re sharing immense amounts of knowledge about how to harvest vegetables properly, in doing so we are also exchanging immense amounts of language in order to get the job done.

Our 2018 harvest crew is an incredibly diverse bunch of folks, all of whom speak different combinations of languages. There are those who speak Spanish and English to varying degrees, those who speak either Spanish or English, and then there are Spanish speakers who speak indigenous languages, including Mixteco from Mexico, and Mam and Kanjobal, both Mayan languages from Guatemala. Some people have been farming their whole lives, some for the past decade, and others are experiencing farm life for the first time.

At the beginning of the season, it felt like the language barrier hindered efficiency, but the barrier has since been broken. Over this season, everyone has learned so much English and Spanish, and a few select language buffs have even taken to learning the differences and similarities between the indigenous languages. For me, I have honed my Spanish abilities to a whole new level that is simply not possible in a classroom. But what’s more important than the words we’ve learned has been the relationships that we’ve built with each other as we laughed and grumbled our way through communication breakdowns and successes, just as any good learning process should be.

As you eat your way through your box this week, remember the diversity of words that passed through the air as we harvested, the words that made possible the logistics of assuring quality control and efficiency as we moved from field to field, the words that maybe didn’t make sense the first time and had to be laughed off and said again before they got the message across. As we have spent our days working our bodies in the fields, our minds have been far from dormant. It’s been one stimulating season of knowledge exchange, and I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

Recipes

Carrot & Sweet Onions w/ Tamari & Cilantro

Ingredients

About 1/3bunchCarrots, sliced long and thin

1Sweet Onion, sliced thinly

1/3-1/2bunchCilantro, chopped roughly

Tamari

Garlic

Salt

Instructions

Slice up your onion and set aside.

There are many ways to slice carrots long and thin. You could use a mandolin if you have one, but I just use a knife. I slice the ends of the carrots, slice them in half lengthwise, and then with the flat side down on the cutting board, I simply slice as thinly as I can at a diagonal angle all the way down. You end up with long and flat carrot strips that are perfect for this dish.

Heat up some oil in a pan, throw your onions in and stir around.

After a minute or two add in the carrots and stir them in evenly.

Pour a good splash of tamari or soy sauce into the pan and cover with a lid for a few minutes.

Meanwhile, mince a few cloves of garlic and add them in once you’re done chopping.

Remove the lid for the remainder of the cooking process and continue to cook on medium-high. Add more tamari as more liquid is needed. Cook just until carrots are done, but not so long that they become mushy. Once you turn off the pan, salt to taste.

Serve with tons of raw cilantro on top!

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Purple Potato & Sweet Pepper Frittata

Adapted from Six Seasons by Joshua McFadden

Ingredients

1/2lbPurple Potatoes

2tbspButter

Salt & Pepper

2-3Sweet Peppers, seeded & cut into julienne strips

4ozProsciutto, or sausage, or tofu, cut small

6Eggs

1/2cupParmesan Cheese, finely grated

1/2cupWhole Milk Ricotta Cheese, seasoned lightly with salt & pepper

HandfulCherry Tomatoes, sliced into quarters

Instructions

Put the potatoes in a large pan of water and add salt until it tastes like the sea. Bring to boil and cook until they are tender but not mushy, 15-20 minutes, depending on their size. Drain. When cool enough to handle, cut into small chunks. Heat the oven to 400F.

Heat the butter in a 10-inch skillet (nonstick if you have one, with and ovenproof handle) over medium-high heat. Add the bell peppers and prosciutto, season lightly with salt and black pepper, and cook until fragrant and the bell peppers are softening but not browning, 5-7 minutes. Add the potatoes.

Crack the eggs into a large bowl, add 1 tsp salt, many twists of black pepper, and the parmesan. Whisk until the eggs are nicely blended. Pour the eggs over the ingredients in the skillet, scraping everything out of the bowl with a rubber spatula.

Reduce the heat to medium and let the eggs sit peacefully for about 2 minutes. Then carefully slip the spatula around the edges of the eggs, releasing them from the pan, allowing more liquid egg to flow underneath. Let that new layer of egg set up a bit and then repeat the process. You are building layers of cooked egg, which will help the frittata have a lighter texture.

After most of the liquid egg has cooked, but the top is still runny, a dollop the ricotta over the top of the frittata in 8 blobs, evenly spaced so each slice will get some ricotta. Transfer the pan to the oven and finish cooking the frittata all the way through, about 5 minutes. It should puff a bit and the op will get lightly browned.

Let the frittata sit in the pan for a couple minutes, then run the spatula around the edge and as far under the center as you can. Slide the frittata onto a cutting board or cooling rack. If a bit sticks to the pan and rips, don’t worry, just piece it back together.

Serve the frittata on the warm side of room temperature, cut into wedges. Top with cherry tomatoes. It’s delicious the next day too.